Press Release

TALLAHASSEE - Last week, law enforcement agents with the Florida Lottery's Division of Security visited 84 Lottery retail locations in Alachua, Taylor, Dixie, Gilchrist and Columbia counties as part of its on-going Operation Integrity program.

As a result of these stings, three arrests were made on charges of Grand Theft (violation of section 812.014(2c1), Florida Statutes) involving Lottery tickets. Two arrests were made in Levy County, at Noble Food Mart, located at 705 East Hathaway Avenue in Bronson, and Cedar Key General Store, located at 7690 Southwest State Road 24 in Cedar Key. The third arrest was made in Columbia County at Chevron, located at 3282 West US Highway 90 in Lake City.

These actions are part of the Lottery's on-going effort to heighten awareness of what we do as an organization to combat illegal activity. The Florida Lottery encourages players to protect themselves and their tickets by signing the back of their ticket upon purchase, checking their own ticket to see if it's a winner and watching the monitor while the ticket is being validated at retail locations. If there is a question about the ticket being a winner, or the prize amount won, players should request the original ticket be returned to them, then contact the Lottery's Division of Security immediately at (850) 487-7730. The earlier you report suspicious activity the easier it is to investigate.

ABOUT THE FLORIDA LOTTERY

The Florida Lottery is responsible for contributing more than $31 billion to education and sending more than 750,000 students to college through the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. The Florida Lottery reinvests 98 percent of its revenue back into Florida's economy through prize payouts, commissions to more than 13,000 Florida retailers and transfers to education. Since 1988, Florida Lottery games have paid more than $52.4 billion in prizes and made more than 1,900 people millionaires. For more information, please visit www.flalottery.com.